Wildcat Creek Road

Wildcat Creek Road is the western most and the easiest way to access to the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness directly from Highway 26 (Mt Hood Highway), compared to the Boulder Trail farther east which is moderate difficulty, and the Hunchback Mountain Trail even farther east which is very difficult.

This is a four mile and about 2,000 vertical foot hike up the road to the McIntyre Ridge trailhead. Here are some pictures and notes from the trip.

This road was originally used for harvesting timber, now this area is part of a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) reforestation project. This area was also used as a Mt Hood Recreation area for trail biking etc. but is now permanently gated, closed to motorized usage, and under surveillance due to trash dumping and other recent illegal activities there. Some people, like mushroom hunters, may be upset about this new vehicle restriction but it’s great for hikers and wilderness explorers as now we can hike this road as if it was just another hiking trail that takes us to the McIntyre Ridge trailhead and into the wilderness. The red line on the map shows the approximate location of the gate just past some residential properties.

About twenty minutes from the highway, just past the gate, it starts raining. The rain varies from drizzle to seriously hard downpour, but does not stop until I am on the shuttle back to town about four hours later 8-O

As the rain started I managed to get an awesome picture of both heavy rain and sunshine coming though the trees. The slight blur at the top left is from my hand shielding the camera lens from the rain as I had to point the camera up hill to get the shot.Is this what they mean by “raining sunshine”?

I wait under cover of some fir “umbrella” trees for a few minutes to see if the rain is just a quick shower, it doesn’t ease up so I continue up the road.

Then we have the heaviest downpour of rain I’ve seen in a while, so I find this tree to hide under, notice the tree’s trunk is bone dry and likely stays that way year round no matter how much it rains. It didn’t seem like the rain was going to let up at all so I considered setting camp with the minimal emergency gear I carry even on short and day hikes.

About half an hour later the rain finally turns back to drizzle so I quickly head out, huffing up the road trying to make up for lost time. Around 2,500 feet altitude I rise above the rain and into the clouds, finally a chance to dry off a bit and keep my camera handy instead of packed away.

Holy crap what was that?! Something big moving and snapping twigs just over this little “side ridge”! I quickly took a picture in that direction which came out a little blurry in my haste and can’t see any definite sign of land mammal in the image, can you? What was it? A bear? A mountain lion? A Sasquatch?

The top portion of the road follows the western rim of the Boulder Canyon. The canyon is on the left side when looking at this picture. The clouds prevent me from seeing very far into the canyon.

Looking east off the rim into the canyon I was able to catch a brief glimpse through the clouds of the east ridge on the other side of the canyon, but can’t really make it out in this picture with so much glare off the clouds.

So close to the end of the road and the trailhead, I ran out of time and had to turn around or risk missing my shuttle back to town. If I hadn’t stopped to take shelter from the rain I would have easily made the trailhead with plenty of time to explore and make my shuttle, sigh. I actually had to move with some quickness to make it to the highway in time, almost stepping on this cute little bugger who was also making his/her way down the road, had to stop and get a quick shot.